Support AIA San Francisco’s vision for the future of the AIA
So you read through AIA San Francisco’s bold vision, then listened to some 99% Invisible, and THEN supported the Radiotopia Kickstarter campaign. But you want to do more. Well after posting that last article, I had some brief communication with AIA San Francisco. They have a Change.org petition to garner support for their revisioning of the AIA. I signed up. How about you? Would you be proud to be an active member of The American Institute of Architecture and Design? I sure would be.
AIA San Francisco has a webpage that describes a bit more in detail what they want to see happen, and what their envisioned timeline would be. Please read through it here. Their scope of change is big. Their ideas are radical. Their proposals would result in disruption. But I’m a firm believer that it needs to happen.
We can go through a purposeful rebirth or a forced decline
The changes AIA SF want point towards a lot of the bureaucratic waste within all things related to being a licensed architect in the USA-AIA and NCARB doing similar things, but not being one entity; a convoluted diversity of licensing that is state based rather than a single national architecture license; a blurring between what an architect, an interior designer, an urban planner, an unlicensed designer, and other building professionals do; a loss of focus on what our professional organizations do for their members and the community at large; the list goes on. We need a streamlining and a unification. And I think it will happen in one of two ways. We as a community (both licensed and unlicensed) can come together to create a new framework for how the built environment will be shaped. A new framework that will be based in the realities of the 21st century. A new framework that acknowledges how many of our old solutions are hurting us rather than helping to protect the Health, Safety, and Welfare of the public. So we can make these changes deliberately, through strength. OR…we can do nothing. We can just keep showing up to work and doing our best to stay employed. We can just keep going to AIA conventions to get our credits and watch as the group becomes more and more out of sync with the community at large-have you ever noticed how lunches at AIA conventions are predominantly older white men? Not necessarily the avant-garde radical paradigm shifters we need at the moment. If we do nothing, we risk oblivion. We risk being circumvented as pioneers of no-longer-future technology (3D printing of buildings, for instance) devise new ways to build, perhaps ways that don’t require our traditional skill sets.
As I’ve wondered before, will people in twenty years look back and lump blacksmith, telephone operator, and architect into one group of non-existent or niche professions? I think it’s possible. Professions, companies, and organizations can all collapse in the face of civic and technological change. Just because architects always have been, doesn’t mean architects always will be. Just because the AIA has been the American Institute of Architects since 1857, doesn’t mean that it needs to be or should be called that in 2057 (or even 2017). If we are the building profession, and if many of us are members of the AIA, it’s up to us to make the change. Supporting this radical revisioning of the AIA is worth doing because it aims to grow and improve an organization that we are apart of, that we value, and that we want to see endure. And quite honestly, once you’ve seen the term “The American Institute of Architecture and Design”, can you ever go back to wanting something lesser? I know I can’t.
Show your support of AIA San Francisco’s bold vision for the future of the AIA:
Sign the Petition and Spread the word
As I hit the publish button on this post, only 96 people have signed the petition. I know that’s due to a lack of exposure rather than a lack of support. Spread the word. Bring this up in your local chapters. Let’s fix the AIA. Don’t sit idly by and just hope for some good news. Let’s make good news. 
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Perry Cofield, Architect
I’m interested in change, but it seems impossible with all the entrenched interests. Don’t know where SF is going with this. But I am positive AIA is out of step with society, robs its poor member to serve the rich and established, and is quite ineffective as a trade association to boot- it has neither enough money or clout to affect change. Also think that residential architecture should be liscensed separately from other building types. I have sympathy for certain unlicensed house designers who are skilled in the building type through experience. At any rate, I will read on. Real change would also involve pedagogy, state boards, NCARB, and the rest. Because we have been in a certain type of silo for too long.
Jared Banks
well said. I think there is much more to be done for our profession than this, but I think AIA SF’s vision will definitely help.
Edward J Shannon, ArCH/NCARB/LEED GA
They could certainly gain membership by admitting all architects. I’m talking about admitting the IT guys, who already refer to themselves as “Architects”! That’d get the numbers up!
Jared Banks
🙂
Newell Rambo, AIA / RID Texas
Because our profession has been losing portions of our “Original Scope of Work” little by little over time, I see Architects hiring Consultants for work we use to do ourselves:
1. An Interior Designer to design the interiors of buildings.
2. A Civil Engineer and a Landscape Architect to design the perimeter of the Building Site.
(Paving, parking and site amenities.)
3. A Plumbing Engineer to size all Building Gutters and Downspouts.
(Some cities ask for an Engineers Sealed Document for sizing gutters and downspouts.)
4. CSI Specifications Writers to write and coordinate the Specifications with the drawings. (I have told Specification Writers that I can do that, and all they do is look at me in bewilderment?)
That would limit Architects to only designing the Building Envelope?
I became an Architect because I wanted to be the “Master Builder” I envisioned Architects to be. When I first became an Architect the elements listed above were part of my Scope of Work.
Some potential clients now hire Contractors and have Contractors enlist Architects as Consultants for Permitting and Design. (Design Build Projects for the majority of the time have the Contractor as Prime and the Architect as a Consultant. I remember when Design Build was just starting and the AIA wanted nothing to do with it, due to 100% liability single point responsibility. Recently that view has changed, but it is too late. The General Contractors took it on themselves to be the Prime and now will not give it up to the Architect. )
Something has to be done before the Profession of Architect is completely eliminated. This AIA San Francisco effort may be in the right direction? I just hope and pray that it is not too late.
Jared Banks
Well said. And don’t forget we can hire people interested in building envelopes and building science too…
Newell Rambo, AIA / RID Texas
What about the D/B issue?
Thanks for deleting the miss pelled one.
Newell Rambo, AIA / RID Texas
spelled one.
edwardjshannon
On a more serious note……
I agree with some of AIA SF’s premises, especially eliminating NCARB and going to a national license. but I would never sign the petition.
but the real problem here is the AIA’s low membership, particularly among small practices. The number of US resident licensed architects that are AIA members is far lower than the 80,000 professional members AIA likes to tout. This is because the 80,000 include internationals and professional affiliates.
AIA needs to make it self relevant and of value to the small practice. I have not seen evidence of this in the re-positioning endeavor. As soon as AIA can begin to look to the interests of ALL architects and not just their membership, things might begin to change.
Does AIA SF really think allied professionals are going to pay $700.00 + per year to be members in the AIA & D? I doubt it! AIA needs to focus its attention on capturing the US Licensed architects who are not members.
hellokel
I live in SF so I’m going to follow up with this…. I really wonder if they can make a difference… Do they have a plan of action or just great ideas?
Jared Banks
All great comments. Thanks. As I stare at the $743 in membership dues AIA wants from me for being a self-employed architect living in Seattle, what AIA does for me and what I do for AIA is driven home even more. I’m a firm believer that you get out what you put into the AIA. It does make me wonder though: can I get enough value out of such an insanely high dollar amount. Yearly. This past year probably not with all my moving. Next year? I think that will be a big question I need to answer.
I would love to see the AIA look at taking care of not just their members but all architects. I wonder if more flexible membership and dues as AIASF proposes would help. I’m inclined to believe so.
Newell, as for the D/B issue…I’ve had the opportunity to work closely with a few contractors recently in a relationship that is architect/designer as sub of contractor. It’s different, and I’m not sure it’s the only way I’d want to work. It has it’s ups and downs, but when it works well it’s great for getting the design and execution really well aligned. When it works. 🙂